Sisterhood in Blues Chez Paul
by Delilah Kelley
Summary: Still having fun in the guise of everyone's favorite chosen brothers, Jake & Elwood. This time, at the posh restaurant. 3rd story. Just like Jake and Elwood Blues are, that scene is most subversive which makes it one of my favorite scenes. Check this !


_A story of friendship and of "chosen" sisterhood – Roxy as Jake and Vinnie as Elwood – I always loved the fact that these two brothers chose themselves to be brothers. The same thing happened between Roxy and me ! (Vinnie's my nickname and Roxy's my chosen sister's. Yeeaauup !)_

_Just having fun writing this piece – the restaurant scene is not only funny but subversive, just like Jake and Elwood Blues are - which make it one of my favorite scenes._

Roxy and Vinnie knew the thing would not be easy. But they were on a mission from God. The two Blues sisters went downtown to the famous posh restaurant _Chez Paul_. Vinnie parked the Bluesmobile her unique way, that is, sliding it with a sharp jerk on the steering wheel, tires squealing, to align the car perfectly along the curb. This was her lucky day – there was room enough for the Bluesmobile to park just in front of the entrance.

A restaurant staff member went to open the door on Roxy's side. Surprised, the young woman climbed out of the car with grace. It enhanced her already good mood. Vinnie had already got her lanky frame out of the car, after having killed the engine and the headlights.

Inside, the evening was in full swing. Mr Fabulous was busy with the telephone, answering the numerous calls requesting to book a table there. "Mainly French cuisine… No, sir, Mayor Daley no longer dines here, sir. He's dead, sir. Private dining rooms are available…"

Roxy and Vinnie entered the place. Roxy was in particularly good mood tonight and Vinnie felt she was in a wild mood, that is, anything, absolutely anything could happen. She was ready to follow her elder sister, as usual. At least the whole thing promised to be funny.

Roxy planted herself in front of Mr Fabulous, still busy over the phone. The second his eyes fell on the young lady in a black suit, with dark glasses and a black hat, he felt – pretty much like Vinnie – that things would not go round the usual way tonight. "Oh, no, I thought it was supposed to be five years ! Did you get five years ?" He was so much surprised that he had expressed his views, the phone handset still on his mouth ! The person at the other end must have said something as he quickly realized his mistake. "No, sir, not you. And your name, sir ? Rizzolo, for eight, at 11:30. Thank you."

Mr Fabulous hung up the phone a bit harshly, his expressive eyes showing real annoyance and offering a sharp contrast with Roxy's smiling face. Yes, everything could happen in the wake of Roxy Blues.

"Mr Fabulous ! How marvelous it is to see you ! You're looking younger than ever !" Roxy said with a mischievous, almost seductive smile.

Mr Fabulous looked at both sisters with sheer panic in his eyes. Vinnie was already looking around, searching for something she could bring back home, her kleptomania about to overwhelm her again.

"Wait, you gals can't come in here," Mr Fabulous said. The panic on his face could be heard in his voice too. His gaze went from Roxy to Vinnie, who was now very interested in a lovely glass cabinet with nice things inside. Vinnie put her hands on the door frame, as if she wanted to force open the door.

"Nonsense, my dear fellow !" Roxy exclaimed. "My sister and I have come to dine to celebrate my early release from the service of the State !"

Vinnie was still busy trying to open the door but she realized she could not : she did not have the tools required for it and besides, there were too many people around. She was here to have dinner, not to be thrown into jail. She glanced at the coffee room besides, separated from the lobby only by a glass door. She got closer and watched the clients there.

"Well… let's talk outside… let's have a cup of coffee outside…" Mr Fabulous pleaded. He did not realize that he had talked a bit louder. Everybody in the coffee room turned their heads toward the door, where Vinnie's lanky silhouette, with her dark glasses and black fedora hat, was looking at them. They were all silent, curious to hear what was going on in the restaurant lobby. Vinnie felt weird, aware of the class divide between these well-off people and herself. Somehow, she would never be like them and the realization thereof struck her.

"Heavens, no ! We seek a full meal and all the compliments of the house ! Come, Vinnie !" Vinnie left her train of thoughts where it had been interrupted. She stopped watching these wealthy people and turned herself towards her sister. "Let's adjourn ourselves to the nearest table and overlook this establishment's board of fare !" Roxy said, a breezy smile on her face, while offering her arms to her sister that took it with elegance. Both Blues sisters entered the dining room, their steps in perfect harmony.

The phone rang at this very second, compelling Mr Fabulous to stay where he was. He picked up the receiver while replying before shouting "Good evening, Chez Paul… Wait ! Hey ! Err… sir, do you mind calling back in about five minutes please ?"

Roxy and Vinnie had spotted an empty table in full middle of the dining room. Gallantly, Roxy showed the way to her younger sister and let her go first. The Blues sisters took their seat and began to unfold their napkin they stuck between their necks and shirts. A contented smile showed on their face. Some classical music could be heard in the background. That was the very first time they went to such a place. They would enjoy it for sure. Once done with their respective napkin, both sisters looked at each other in approval and satisfaction.

"I'm sure we'll have a table for you in just a few moments," Mr Fabulous told the elderly couple who had been waiting in the lobby before Roxy and Vinnie had turned up. He felt embarrassed : the two sisters had taken the very table the couple had booked ! He wondered how he could get rid of the two young women.

Back in the dining room, Roxy and Vinnie were still waiting for someone to take their orders. But nobody seemed to care. After a few seconds, Roxy decided to take the matter between her fingers – literally. She put two fingers between her lips and whistled loudly to draw attention.

It proved efficient as everybody around raised their heads. Several waiters looked at each other, sensing danger for the smooth running of the evening. In the lobby, Mr Fabulous looked apologetically at the elder couple. He too had felt danger – well, he would have felt it anywhere else a Blues sister was around. "Excuse me, won't you ?" he said with a polite smile. For sure, the evening would not be as quiet as he had thought first. Not with Roxy and Vinnie Blues around.

A young waiter came to Roxy'side to take orders eventually.

"Give us a bottle of your finest champagne, five shrimp cocktails and some bread for my sister," she asked.

"We have a Dom Perignon '71 at 120 dollars," the waiter explained. He pretty much doubted these two weird customers could pay any of it and he even hoped they would refuse such an expensive offer. But he was left with his own hopes.

"That'll be fine, pal," Roxy said gesturing him to go and bring it back quickly with a wave of her hand.

Mr Fabulous came to the Blues sisters' table. He leant over Roxy who feigned to ignore him. "Come on, seriously, gals, the food is really expensive here. The soup is fucking ten dollars ! Come on, let's go outside, I'll buy a cup of coffee," he suggested while tucking at Roxy's arm. He wanted to avoid disaster at any cost – even at the cost of a cup of coffee each.

His smile disappeared quickly from his face. Roxy's petite frame did not give way. She resisted stubbornly. She only turned her head to tell him the purpose of their visit here. "We're putting the band back together."

"Forget it. No way," Mr Fabulous replied firmly.

"We're on a mission from God," Vinnie chimed in, hoping to stun him with the argument that had become her catchphrase.

At this moment, four or five waiters came around the table, carrying the shrimp cocktails, the champagne and the bread Roxy had ordered for them both. As soon something was in her plate, the elder Blues sister began to plunge her fingers in there to eat. The food looked so delicious !

"Hold it, hold it, what's this ?" Mr Fabulous exclaimed. Not only the Blues sisters were messing up in his restaurant, but they had taken the matter most seriously by ordering something to eat and drink.

"Waiter ? Sir ? Please, waiter," a fifty-something customer asked from a close table.

Mr Fabulous could see all his staff was busy tending to the Blues sisters. He went to see the customer himself. A family of five was there, mother and father, along with their three sons, aged from 10 to 20. They all looked very well off – and for sure they were.

"Yes sir ? How are your salads ?" Mr Fabulous asked politely.

"The salads are fine. It's just we'd… err… we'd like to move to another table, away from these two ladies," the man said, concluding his request with his thumb showing the Blues sisters seated not so that far from his table – in fact right behind his back.

Roxy and Vinnie were now having a good time with the food. The shrimp cocktails were excellent and they really enjoyed them. They both picked up some shrimp and intertwined their arms to put it in their respective mouths, giving a ghastly spectacle of themselves. Of course, their trained ears had lost nothing about the man's request.

Mr Fabulous glanced at the Blues sisters. "Why, have they been disturbing you ?" he enquired.

The man had an embarrassed look. "No. It's just that they're… frankly, they're offensive. Smelling. I mean… they smell bad."

That was not exactly true. But stating someone smelled bad was in general the first way to show despise and arrogance towards people of another – and in general inferior – condition. Mr Fabulous felt embarrassed. Whatever the Blues sisters could be or do, they were fellow musicians and he had had a wonderful time playing the trumpet for them. Somewhere, he felt hurt by the comment about his friends.

Vinnie had turned her head towards Mr Fabulous, while chewing on her bread. Her trained musician's hearing had heard the derogative comment. She glanced at her sister who had heard the same.

Someone coughed in the distance. Mr Fabulous looked towards the entrance. The elderly couple was still waiting for their table. The man gestured him to come. A polite smile on his face, Mr Fabulous managed to get away. "Excuse me, sir, I'll see if I can look another table for you."

"Thank you," replied the father sternly.

The sommelier brought the bottle of champagne. The sound of a bottle being uncorked could be heard. Roxy handed her glass to be filled up. Then the sommelier wanted to serve Vinnie. She handed out the water glass.

"Wrong glass, miss," the sommelier said disapprovingly, a shocking look on his face in front of such a display of unladylike manners.

Vinnie could not care less. Her water glass still in her hand, she gestured the man to fill it up. The sommelier served her anyway. Some people should be forbidden to cross the threshold of this place !

Both sisters looked at each other. That moment was a real moment of fun together. With Roxy being locked up in the joint, Vinnie had not had many occasions to have fun. Besides, goofing around with her sister was the thing she enjoyed most – beside playing music. She was so much happy to have Roxy at her side – even if it meant being on the wild side of life.

Vinnie and Roxy cheered and clang their glasses together loudly, which drew everybody's attention towards them. But the sisters did not care. Then they drank the champagne with awful sipping noises. Everybody stared at them. Roxy even let out a blurp which made Vinnie laugh heartily. Then the younger Blues sister began to stuff her face with some shrimp. She bit a piece and suddenly, got an idea. She looked at her sister who gathered at once what she wanted to do. Roxy opened wide her mouth while Vinnie got ready to throw the remaining piece of her shrimp into her sister's mouth. She launched the piece that landed right inside Roxy's mouth with a cracking noise.

The sisters' behavior had not escaped the little boy's attention. He was the family man's youngest son. He had been watching at the two weird ladies seating nearby and while that was the first time he had seen grown-ups behaving that way, he found it particularly funny. A smile appeared on his face. If only he could behave like this, at least once in his life ! His gaze met her father's that forbade him to look at the two ladies.

Vinnie took another sip of her champagne. Noisily. The father and mother beside their table looked at each other, a reprobatory and disgusted look on their too much polite faces. They felt helpless too. Roxy glanced at them, something brewing in her mind. She had heard the derogative comment made about her sister and herself. Time was up to have some fun at the expense of these suckers. Yeah, they would be a fine pick for fun.

Then Vinnie saw the look on the father's face. She waved at him to greet him while chewing, smiling and eventually licking her sensual lips in a most provoking manner, sticking her tongue out. The father turned away his eyes. At the same moment, the eldest son, aged about 20, a young lad that promised to be handsome, gazed at Vinnie, fascinated by the sensuality that emanated from her. She returned the gaze, flashing him her Miss America smile. The young man blushed a bit and smiled back at her shyly. Vinnie went on eating her shrimp, her gaze still very insisting on the young man, as if she wanted to eat him first thing. Then she discarded the remaining piece of shrimp by throwing it casually into Roxy's mouth, like she had done before. The two sisters shared about everything – well, almost everything. Men were not something they usually shared though.

Still chewing the piece of shrimp her sister had given her, Roxy decided to take action. She glanced a last time at the family table beside. Then she moved her chair between the father and his wife.

"How much for the little boy ?" she asked faking a foreign, Oriental accent that matched her high cheekbones, dark hair and almond-shaped, brown eyes.

The little boy did a double take, his expressive eyes reflecting utmost puzzlement.

"The little men, how much for the little men ?" she repeated still in her thick Oriental accent.

"What ?" the father asked in amazement. The mother put a hand on her heart, as if she was about to faint.

"Your little men. I want to buy your little men, the little boy, your sons…" Roxy went on, her index showing the boys. "Sell them to me ! Sell me your children !"

"Maitre d' ! Maitre d' !" the father called out, his voice showing both panic and exasperation.

Mr Fabulous heard the distress call from his customer. He abandoned the couple that was still waiting for a table in the lobby without a word, an apologetic look on his face. Once he was out of sight, the elderly couple decided to go out and have dinner elsewhere. Posh restaurants were not a rare commodity downtown Chicago after all.

He rushed towards the Blues sisters. Roxy was happy to have sown the seeds of trouble around. Now she enjoyed the panic from both father and mother to pick up food directly in their plates !

Mr Fabulous arrived to take her by the arm and brought her back to her own table with a rather abrupt manner. "Cut it out ! Cut it out ! The owner's gonna ask me to call the cops !"

"You wouldna do that to me, would ya man ?" Roxy asked with a mischievous smile on her lips.

"She just got outta Joliet ! She's on parole !" Vinnie explained, her mouth still full of food. "Can't call the cops on her, man !"

Roxy had still her mischievous smile on her face. All this was just a joke after all and she loved too much to have fun to cut it out now. Moreover, poking fun at the expense of some well-to-do family was not the real purpose of the whole shebang. She raised her glass of champagne in front of the maitre d'. "We're putting the band back together," she concluded before taking a sip.

"I said no, absolutely not !" Mr Fabulous replied.

Roxy put down her glass on the table and turned herself towards the mother. "You !" she called while slapping the woman's shoulder. "How much for your husband ?" Then she burst out in a maniacal laugh that sounded in all the dining room. The mother began to choke on her food – she had been as much shocked by the daring proposal than by the slap on her back while she was eating something that of course went down the wrong pipe.

"We're putting the band back together. We need you, man ! We need your horn !" Roxy repeated while confronting Mr Fabulous, hoping this time she would manage to convince him. She had been enough wild for the evening and she did not want to go back to the joint just because the cops would have been called on her. Now was not the time for run-ins with the law.

"No, I can't, I really can't !" Mr Fabulous said again.

"We have everybody, except Matt 'Guitar' Murphy and 'Blue Lou' and we're getting them next," Vinnie said, both her face and voice most serious.

"No way !" Mr Fabulous said defensively.

Silence fell around the table. Roxy sighed and got rid of the napkin hanging around her neck to wipe her lips, this time with a distinguished gesture, like the nuns had taught them. "If you say no, Vinnie and I will come for breakfast, lunch and dinner, every day of the week," Roxy said hoping this would be the argument to convince him to come back to the band.

Mr Fabulous was about to reply but Vinnie cut him short in his move. She took a huge bite in the several loaves of bread she had taken in her hand, and which covered almost half of her face. That clinched the argument once for all. Mr Fabulous could not resist, he knew it. "Okay, okay, I'll play, you got me," he said in a surrendering tone, throwing his both hands in front of him in a gesture of defeat.

Roxy smiled out of satisfaction. She raised from her chair, Vinnie following suit. Mr Fabulous just slumped in the chair the elder Blues sister had occupied, a disgusted look on his face. Once more, these two she-devils had managed to coax him to play in their band. He glanced at the bottle of champagne. Maybe there would be some left after all. He took the bottle, turned it upside down. Not a single drop of the prestigious Dom Perignon '71 was left ! The Blues sisters had drunk the whole bottle !

"Sir ? Sir ? Sir ! Sir !" the father called out. But Mr Fabulous knew the dice had been thrown already. He had already lost his job with tonight's ruckus. He could not care less anymore. After all, he knew where his real life was – it was not tending to the needs of a bunch of wealthy jerks but playing the trumpet like he used to do so not so far ago.

© Copyright 2007 – Delilah Kelley


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